Southie in TV, movies, and pop culture

Boston has long been used as a setting for Hollywood films, documentaries, and plays. But South Boston, in particular, has provided a rich and powerful background for these stories that have become cult classics or won countless awards.

South Boston’s influence has extended into video games with the character knows as “Scout” in “Team Fortress 2,” a competitive onlinegame.

His biography online states that he is the youngest of eight boys from the south side of Boston.

“With seven older brothers on his side, fights tended to end before the runt of the litter could maneuver into punching distance, so the Scout trained himself to run. He ran everywhere, all the time, until he could beat his pack of mad dog siblings to the fray.”

Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire set his most recent play in his former hometown of South Boston.

“Good People” opened in 2011 and did not include the typical Hollywood tropes of its Southie setting-- there were no criminals, drugs, or corpses. The play was about regular folks trying to make ends meet.

The play was a critical success in New York and won a Tony Award for actress Frances McDormand.
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The Town

The latest film to feature South Boston is our very own Ben Affleck (pictured, with Jon Hamm). ‘The Town’ features an all-star cast, including ‘Mad Men’ star Jon Hamm and Black Lively from ‘Gossip Girl.’
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David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

The Greening of Southie

This documentary took a look at Boston’s first residential green building.

Ben Affleck’s directorial debut was shot in Dorchester and in South Boston and highlighted some of the famous bars and streets in those neighborhoods.

The Globe’s Ty Burr wrote that the movie was authentically Boston because it was “anchored throughout by an insider’s knowledge of this particular street, that specific turn of phrase, this local actor cast in a key bit part. The sag of a three-decker and the sag on the faces of the people who live there.”

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Faith Lehane

Eliza Dushku played the role of a rough-talking killer in the WB show, “Buffy the Vampire Killer.”

Her character’s origin was from South Boston and was known to say odd catch phrases, like “five by five.”
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The Departed

Martin Scorsese finally won an Oscar as director of this 2006 film. Jack Nicholson’s character had similarities with Whitey Bulger, the infamous mobster from Southie who has been listed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list for years.
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Mystic River

Clint Eastwood’s dark and powerful account of childhood sexual abuse and violence was released at the height of the Catholic church abuse scandals in Boston and elsewhere around the world. It also marked the resurgence of movies filmed in Boston. Parts of the film were shot in and around South Boston.

Boondock Saints

The film, which was about Catholic vigilantes who vow to rid Boston of its crime, developed a cult following despite having a very limited first release. It is mostly filmed in South Boston, and it has achieved astounding success since.
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Southie

What could be more Boston than the Wahlbergs? ‘Southie’ starred the older Wahlberg, Donnie, as a New York-returned South Boston native who struggles with the Irish mafia, family and friends.
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Good Will Hunting

Local boys Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were successful in making this film synonymous with Boston. Damon’s character hailed from South Boston, and his accent was spot on.

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Broadcast News

This romantic comedy about television news featured William Hurt’s character as an ambitious charismatic news anchor.

In one of the first scenes of the movie, Hurt’s younger alter ego tells his father, “You’re never going to leave South Boston and I’m gonna see the whole damn world.”
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The Verdict

Paul Newman (pictured) starred as alcoholic lawyer Frank Galvin, who gets a shot at redemption when he takes on a medical negligence case. Although the film was mostly shot in New York, Southie played a large part in the film, from the William F. Spencer Funeral Home at 575 East Broadway to George’s Variety on G Street.
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The Friends of Eddie Coyle

The film features some of the most flawless Boston accents, and it depicts the Boston crime scene in that era. Along with South Boston, it is filmed in Dorchester, on the South Shore, at the Kentucky Tavern on the corner of Mass. Ave. and Newbury, on the Cambridge side of the Charles by the MIT dorms, in a Milton house, and at the railway station in Sharon. Pictured, Robert Mitchum as Eddie Coyle.
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